1842: Born in Macon, Georgia
1856: At 14, Lanier enters Oglethorpe
College as a sophomore
1860: Graduated Oglethorpe College
with honors
1861: Enlists in Confederate Army
1863: Lanier is finally separated
from his younger brother and is captured for 5 months at Point
Lookout Prison
1865: Lanier is released from Point
Lookout Prison and returns home on foot
1865: Upon returning home, Lanier
becomes very ill for 6 weeks and his mother dies from tuberculosis
1867: Lanier manages an Academy
at Prattville, Alabama
1867: Marries Miss Mary Day
1867: "A Birthday Song"
1867: "Barnacles"
1867: "Resurrection"
1868: Lanier becomes sick with
a hemorrhaged lung
1868-1872: Studies law with his
father
1868: "Tyranny"
1868: "Life and Song"
1869: "Thar's more in the Man than
thar is in the Land"
1870: Becomes sick and seeks treatment
in New York
1871: "Seashore Grave"
1871: "Nirvana"
1873: Settles in Baltimore and
takes a job with The Peabody Symphony Concerts as first flute
1874: Goes to Florida and Georgia
to visit family
1874: "On Huntingdon's "Miranda""
1875: "Corn"
1875: "The Symphony"
1875: "In Absence"
Winter 1874-1875, 1875-1876: "Symphony,"
"Psalm of the West," and "Cantata"
1876: Family joins him in West
Chester, Philadelphia
1876: Begins lecturing with courses
such as "Shakespeare's Course" and an Elizabethan course
1876: "Clover"
1876: "A Dedication to Charlotte
Cushman"
1876: "To Charlotte Cushman"
1876: "Rose-Morals"
1876: "Acknowledgment"
1876: "Laus Marle"
1876: "Special Pleading"
1876: "To -----, with a Rose"
1876: "Ode to the John Hopkins
University"
1876: "Martha Washington"
1876: "Psalm of the West"
1876: "Uncle Jim's Baptist Revival
Hymn"
1877: Selected to lecture at
John Hopkins University
1877: "The Waving of the Corn"
1877: "The Song of the Chattahoochee"
1877: "From the Flats"
1877: "The Mocking Bird"
1877: "Tampa Robins"
1877: "The Stirrup-Cup"
1877: "The Bee"
1877: "To Richard Wagner"
1877: "To Beethoven"
1877: "A Florida Sunday"
1877: "An Evening Song"
1877: "A Sunrise Song"
1877: "On a Palmetto"
1877: "Struggle"
1877: "Control"
1877: "To J.D.H."
1877: "Marsh Hymns"
1877: "Thou and I"
1877: "The Hard Times in Elfland"
1877-1878: "A Song of the Future"
1877-1878: "Under the Cedarcroft
Chestnut"
1877-1878: "A Florida Ghost"
1878: "The Revenge of Hamish"
1878: "The Harlequin of Dreams"
1878: "Un Frau Rannette Falf-Uuerbach"
1878: "To Our Mockingbird"
1878: "The Dove"
1879: "To Bayard Taylor"
1879-1880: "Opposition"
1880: Lanier becomes sick again
in May and in December with a temperature of 104, he writes "Sunrise"
1880: "The Crystal"
1880: "A Song of Eternity in Time"
1880: "Owl Against Robin"
1880: "Ireland"
1880-1881: "A Ballad of Trees and
the Master"
1881: Lanier becomes so ill he
can no longer teach his classes
1881: Lanier travels to New York
to close a deal for the publication of the King Arthur books when he becomes
so sick he calls his wife to join him
1881: The doctors order Lanier
to "tent life" in a clean and high environment
1881: Lanier is taken to Richmond
Hill, and tents are set up for him to live in
1881: On August 4th on a trip to
Lynn, North Carolina, Lanier is struck so hard that he never returns to
Richmond Hill
1881: Lanier finally dies from
tuberculosis
Issues and Themes
Musical Talent
Sidney Lanier was born into a family that had musical influence throughout its history. His mother was skilled in music and taught Lanier how to read notes for music. It was easy to see from an early age that Lanier had a special gift for music. He could play several instruments including the flute, which was his favorite; the violin, which his father discouraged because of its power over him; the piano; and the organ. Lanier knew from an early age that he was different and that God gave him a talent which He expected him to use. An excerpt from his daily notebook reads: "I am more than all perplexed by this fact...of my nature is to music; and for that I have the greatest talent; indeed, not boasting, for God gave it to me, I have an extraordinary musical talent, and feel it within me plainly that I could rise as high as any composer" (xiv). Even though Lanier was very talented, he knew that music would not provide for him as he says again in his notebook: "But I cannot bring myself to believe that I was intended for a musician, because it seems so small a business in comparison with other things which, it seems to me, I might do" (xiv). Lanier continued throughout his life to rely on his musical ability to help him through rough times. When he was captured at Point Lookout he hid his flute up his sleeve and kept it to lighten his spirits for the five months that he was kept there. Lanier used music in his poetry to create a rhythm similar to music.
Lanier's Battle with Tuberculosis
Lanier caught tuberculosis when he was captured and held at Point Lookout Prison. After he was released, he was forced to walk home on foot. When he arrived home, he was sick for six weeks, and during these weeks his mother died. Lanier continued to fight his sickness throughout his life. Many times when he was forced seek better climate he would write about what was around him. When he went to Georgia he wrote the poem, "Corn." Lanier continued to produce poems even when he was too sick to get out of bed. One December Lanier had a temperature of 104, but he still wrote "Sunrise." Lanier was finally confined to a "tent life" and forced to move to North Carolina. It was here that he finally succumbed to the disease and died on September 7th.
Lanier's Obligation to God
Lanier knew that
he was given a special gift. He felt an obligation to God for giving him
that gift. During his later years he almost felt rushed to fulfill his
talents. He wrote in his notebook: "I would think that I am shortly to
die...all day my soul hath been cutting swiftly into the great space of
the subtle, unspeakable deep, driven by wind after wind of heavenly melody"
(xix). He continued his struggle with tuberculosis, which sometimes hindered
him from fulfilling his duties. His love of music and poetry kept him going.
He never forgot that it was God that gave him his talents and to him he
was indebted. He thanked God "that in the knowledge of Him and of myself
which cometh to me daily in fresh revelations, I have a standfast firmament
of blue, in which all clouds soon dissolve" (xxii).
Lanier contributed many poems to
the public and hopefully in his eyes when he laid on his deathbed, he knew
that finally he was obligated no more.
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Work
Line 5: " So souls come down and
wrinkle life"
Lanier uses a metaphor to compare
souls to raindrops falling and causing a wrinkle in someone's life.
Line 6: "And vanish in the flesh-sea
strife"
Again, he uses a metaphor to compare
how raindrops appear to vanish in the sea with how souls vanish into the
sea of flesh.
Line 8: "the wrinkles in life's
face"
The author uses imagery so that
you can actually picture the "face of life."
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Bibliography
Lanier, Sidney. Poems of Sidney Lanier. The Scribner Press, 1884.
Painter, F.V.N. Poets of the
South. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Library Press, 1968.
Written by Jennifer Barnes
Edited by Mark
Canada, Ph.D.